Dispensing package for elongated bodies

ABSTRACT

A dispensing package for relatively small elongated bodies such as arbor mounted tube fitting ferrules and including a rectangularly shaped base of relatively rigid but resilient material and a clear cover of plastic or the like. The base has suitable locking indentations or apertures along the front and rear edges to interact with complementary downwardly protruding stops on the cover, thus to limit relative movement of the cover and base. The plastic cover has elongated, transversely disposed blisters above the base which hold and display items therein. The side edges of the cover turn inwardly to form longitudinal grooves which slidably engage the side edges of the base.

United States Patent v [1 1 Zahuranec et a1.

1 DISPENSING PACKAGE FOR ELONGATEI) BODIES [75] Inventors: Emery J. Zahuranec, Solon; Alfred Bedo, Walton Hills; Ross E. Barth, Euclid, all of Ohio [73] Assignee: Crawford Fitting Company, Solon,

[58] Field of Search 206/l.5, 42, 44.12, 45.15, 206/56 R, 56 AC, 78 B, 80 A; 220/41, 60 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,797,419 3/1931 Hothersall 220/41 X 2,162,222 6/1939 Lachten... 220/41' UX 2,273,999 2/1942 Rueger..... 220/41 UX 2,309,111 l/1943 Hothersall.... 220/41 X 2,985,296 5/1961 Kahn 206/78 B 2,992,726 7/1961 Simens 220/41 X 3,157,280 11/1964 Perdue et-al.... 206/78 B 3,187,926 6/1965 Zimmet 220/41 3,325,000 6/1967 Edwards 206/78 B X 3,367,491 2/1968 Dunham ct a1. 220/41 X 3,375,920 4/1968 Shaw 206/78 B 51 May 28, 1974 4/1969 Ungar 220/41 X Primary ExaminerWilliam 1. Price Assistant ExaminerSteven E Lipman Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Fay, Sharpe and Mulholland [57] ABSTRACT A dispensing package for relatively small elongated bodies such as arbor mounted tube fitting ferrules and including a rectangularly shaped base of relatively rigid but resilient material and a clear cover of plastic or the like. The base has suitable locking indentations or apertures along the front and rear edges to interact with complementary downwardly protruding stops on the cover, thus to limit relative movement of the cover and base. The plastic cover has elongated, transversely disposed blisters above the base which hold and display items therein. The side edges of the cover turn inwardly to form longitudinal grooves which slidably engage the side edges of the base.

6 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEBIAYZQIQH FIG.

C m mA mm VHDT mA 2 M 4 N E 0a S. E S MMO E R O a W S 5 l Km .u 4 2 5 8 0 II 5 u f 2 2 5 0 k 2). 5

ATTORNEYS DISPENSING PACKAGE ron ELONGATED BODIES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Packages are often used both for dispensing and displaying goods. In such packages, the goods are prefera bly readily visible and easily accessible. In this respect, a transparent shield for the goods is preferred in order to give maximum exposure of the goods. Displaying goods in a transparent package also allows an inventory to be made quickly and efficiently of the goods contained therein. There is no need to open partially used packages and count their contents.

The package which is the subject of this application is specifically designed to hold arbors on which fitting ferrules are mounted, although it is readily adaptable to a multiplicity of other applications. By having the number of arbors readily visible and knowing'the number of ferrules on each fully loaded arbor, inventory is merely a matter of glancing at the package rather than making a detailed count.

Package strength. durability and accessibility of the goods therein are at least as important as the display qualities of the unit. Strength and durability are particularly important in a package which acts as a dispenser. Obviously, repeated openings and closings ofa package will impose on it a significant stress which, unless the package is sufficiently durable, will cause rapid deterioration. The present package is specifically designed to hold about two hundred individual parts and, accordingly, must be able to withstand about two hundred openings and closings without a failure.

The means for opening the package should be simple and efficient to make the goods accessible without undue delay or inconvenience. Furthermore, the package should not be readily breakable since a package which dispenses a large number of articles is likely to be dropped several times.

Earlier packages have had transparent bases slidably transversely of the sides thereof. Relative sliding of the base and plastic cover will bring each blister in its turn into communication with the exterior of the package such that the elements contained therein will individually drop into the waiting hand of the user.

Moreover, the blisters, because they are made of a clear material, greatly reduce the time required for inventory. For example, by using a package with a standard number of blisters in which arbors are placed, and by knowing the number of ferrules on a fully loaded arbet, it is a relatively simple matter to gauge quickly the exact number of ferrules in the package. In this respect, the blisters permit a viewing angle of approximately 270 in order to facilitate the visual inventory.

Stops limiting motion in one direction are provided at either end of the base and of the cover to limit the relative movement therebetween. In this manner any engaged with cardboard or other similar non- ,f

transparent tops having pockets therein. The transparent base acts as a window of sorts to indicate whether a particular pocket was occupied; however, such windows are generally insufficient to display the goods adequately. Moreover. such packages usually lack any mechanism to dispense the articles .contained therein consecutively or to lock the base and the top together to prohibit relative movement therebetween. The net result is that any goods in such packages are in danger of inadvertent removal. Moreover, many of the previous packages have a tendency to weaken and fail following normal moderate usage.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION provided with elongated, transversely disposed blisters in which goods may be placed for storage and subsequent dispensing. The blisters are disposed in spaced, generally parallel fashion along the cover and extend DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings wherein like reference numerals indicate like parts in the various views:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of adispensing package incorporating the principles of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a top viewof the package of FIG. 1 showing in dotted lines the relative movement of the parts;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the package taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the package taken along line 44 of FIG. 2,and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the package taken along lines 55 of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 5 of the drawing,

the dispensing package comprises a base 11 and a cover 12. The base II has a front portion 13 in which rectangular locking apertures or indentations 14 are defined. The apertures 14 open axially forwardly and permit unrestricted entry thereinto until the rear faces 15 are encountered.

In addition to the front portion 13, the base 11 has sides 17 and 18 extending backwardly therefrom and a rear portion 19 to form a substantially rectangular element. A locking aperture or indentation 22 is located along the rear section 19 of the base. The aperture 22 is generally but not necessarily rectangular in shape and has sides 24, 25 and 26.

The cover 12 has a generally rectangular outline and, at the front edge thereof, has a centered semicircular cutout 31 which acts as a thumb space through which the operator may grasp the base l1. At this section of the base 11 is an aperture 310 by which the package may be hung upon a suitable hook or the like. The sides 32 and 33 of the cover 12 are turned downwardly and inwardly to form channels 34 and 35, respectively. The channels 34 and 35 must have a width sufficient to accept the base 11 or, in other words, must have a width slightly larger than the thickness of the base. The front section of the cover 12 also has downwardly protruding detents 39 and 40 which are designed to interfit with the apertures 14 at the front 13 of the base 11.

As will be observed, the detents 39 protrude downwardly out of the plane of the clear plastic cover 12.

3 The forward faces 41 and 42 of the detents 39 slope downwardly and are concave. The sloped forward faces 41 and 42 facilitate the insertion of the base 13 into the channels 34 and 35 during assembly.

As the rear portion 19 of the base 11 engages the sloped faces 41 and 42, the resilient plastic cover is forced to move upwardly, thus widening the mouth into which the base 13 passes from right to left as viewed in FIG. 2. When the base 11 is completely inserted into the cover 12, the flat inner faces 43 of the detents 39 spring into place to engage the rear faces of the locking apertures 14.

A detent 44 at the rear of the cover 12 has a rearwardly sloped face 46 and a flat inner face 48 generally perpendicular to the plane of the cover. The sloped face 46 acts in the same manner as described when the base 11 is inserted in the cover 12 from left to right as seen in FIG. 2.

The perpendicular inner faces 43 and 48 of the detents 39 and 44 cooperate with one another and with the rear faces 15 and 25 of the apertures 14 and 22, respectively, to interlock the parts against relative sliding movement. When interlocked, the base and cover will withstand dropping and other rough handling without separating. Only when the cover 12 and base 11 are actually pulled vertically apart to disengage the detents from the locking apertures (as seen in FIG. 3) will it be possible to slide the sections relative to each other.

Pockets or blisters 50 are formed transversely of the sides of base 11 and lie generally parallel to one another along the length of the cover 12. The blisters 50 are usually (but not necessarily) elongated; that is, they have a length greater than their width so that relatively long bodies may be placed therein. The blisters 50 rise out of and above the plane of the cover 12 and form closed end channels which permit viewing of the contents from nearly any position. Obviously, the size and shape of the blisters may vary according to the size and shape of the articles to be packaged.

Disposed in each of the blisters 50 is an arbor 52 on which sets of frusto-conically shaped ferrules 54 for tube fittings are mounted. Since in the illustrated examples the number of arbors 52 is clearly five, and the number of ferrules on each fully loaded arbor is a standard known quantity, inventory is greatly simplified. At this juncture, it should be noted that the use in the drawings of arbor mounted ferrules is purely for purposes of example and that the packaging principles disclosed apply equally well to a broad range of products.

While other materials may be used, clear plastic is preferred for the cover so that the goods are readily visible. Moreover. by using plastic, the blisters may be formed simultaneously with the formation of the remaining parts of the cover, thus making manufacture very economical.

In order to slide the cover 12 and base 11 apart. the

front section 13 of the base 11 is grasped by a forefinger 56 and thumb 58 in the space provided by the semicircular cutout 31 in the cover 12. The front section 13 is then pressed down relative to the cover to release the inner faces 43 of detents 39 from locking apertures 14.

For ease of description, the principles of the invention have been set forth in connection with but a single illustrated embodiment. it is not intended that the illustrated embodiment nor the terminology employed in describing it be limiting inasmuch as variations in these may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Rather, we desire to be restricted only by the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

l. A dispensing package comprising:

a substantially flat base member of relatively stiff material;

a cover member having grooves formed along the length of the sides of said cover member, said base member being slidably received in and supported by said grooves, said cover member further having upwardly extending blisters transverse to the sides of said cover, to receive objects, and dispense them as the base slides away from the cover in the grooves; and at least one protruding detent at each end of the cover member for securing the base member against movement relative to the cover member, detent engaging locking apertures complementary with said detents being positioned at each end of the base member, and the detent at one end of the cover member being staggered relative to the detent at the other end.

2. The dispensing package of claim 1 wherein the detents provide inner faces, each of which forms a relatively abrupt angle with the plane of the base member. and in which the locking apertures each provide a back face for engagement with said front faces of the detents, thus to hold the cover and the base members together.

3. The dispensing package of claim 2 wherein at least one detent provides an outwardly directed face which is sloped to facilitate the insertion of the base member into the grooves of the cover member.

4. The dispensing package of claim 3 wherein a portion of the front edge of the cover member is cut away to facilitate gripping the base.

5. The dispensing package of claim 4 wherein there are two spaced detents and corresponding complementary locking apertures at the front of the package and one detent and corresponding complementary locking aperture at the rear of the package positioned axially intermediate the front two.

6. The dispensing'package of claim 4 wherein said cover member is of transparent material. 

1. A dispensing package comprising: a substantially flat base member of relatively stiff material; a cover member having grooves formed along the length of the sides of said cover member, said base member being slidably received in and supported by said grooves, said cover member further having upwardly extending blisters transverse to the sides of said cover, to receive objects, and dispense them as the base slides away from the cover in the grooves; and at least one protruding detent at each end of the cover member for securing the base member against movement relative to the cover member, detent engaging locking apertures complementary with said detents being positioned at each end of the base member, and the detent at one end of the cover member being staggered relative to the detent at the other end.
 2. The dispensing package of claim 1 wherein the detents provide inner faces, each of which forms a relatively abrupt angle with the plane of the base member, and in which the locking apertures each provide a back face for engagement with said front faces of the detents, thus to hold the cover and the base members together.
 3. The dispensing package of claim 2 wherein at least one detent provides an outwardly directed face which is sloped to facilitate the insertion of the base member into the grooves of the cover member.
 4. The dispensing package of claim 3 wherein a portion of the front edge of the cover member is cut away to facilitate gripping the base.
 5. The dispensing package of claim 4 wherein there are two spaced detents and corresponding complementary locking apertures at the front of the package and one detent and corresponding complementary locking aperture at the rear of the package positioned axially intermediate the front two.
 6. The dispensing package of claim 4 wherein said cover member is of transparent material. 